


Sister Wives Versus the Patriarchy

by orphan_account



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Episode Fix-It: s06e16, F/M, Felicity deserves better, Nyssa deserves better, Season 6 Fix-It, anti-forced marriage, anti-patriarchy, but it still fails the Bechdel Test, fic as meta, women talking to women
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 07:16:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14159604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: In a world of ley-lines and magic hot tubs, the least realistic thing about 6.16 was the lesbian character's continued attachment to her forced heterosexual marriage.Or... a missing conversation between Felicity and Nyssa.





	Sister Wives Versus the Patriarchy

**Author's Note:**

> I watched Arrow 6.16, because I like Thea, Roy, and Nyssa. Maybe they will escape to their own story, with less horrifically sexist writing than happens on Arrow.
> 
> The Arrow writers continue to do a horrible job at imagining the thoughts and motivations of women. (Seriously. Women only exist in relation to their boyfriends, husbands, and sons... even Nyssa. Who is a lesbian. And really should be able to pass the Bechdel Test.)

"Why do you keep calling me that?" Felicity finally asked. " _Sister-wife_?" She pushed aside the paper on which she had been scribbling and scratching out possible solutions to the cypher, then looked up and glared at Nyssa.

Nyssa shrugged. "Is that not the name for this arrangement in your culture?" 

"Not really in my culture." Felicity blinked. "Nyssa, have you been watching cable TV?"

Nyssa looked a little sheepish. If it were possible for a badass assassin to look sheepish. Nyssa did not resemble a domesticated herbivore. Not at all. But _mountain-goatish_ wasn't a thing. So _sheepish_ it was.

"Ok. Not the point. Though if you get bored, I recommend looking up _Orphan Black_ on Netflix instead." Felicity looked down at her paper and tried to collect her thoughts. "What I mean is... weren't you in love with Sara Lance?"

" _My_ Sara is dead," Nyssa replied.

"That... well, that isn't the point, either," Felicity said. "The point is... I thought you were attracted to women. Just women, I mean. Not bisexual, like Sara."

"I will not seek to displace you from our husband's bed." Maybe Nyssa was trying to be reassuring?

"That's... no. Not it either. I mean..." Felicity paused, pushed her mental re-set button, and tried one more time. "You didn't want to marry Oliver. Your father forced you to."

"That is true," Nyssa nodded.

"And your father is dead now," Felicity continued.

"Thanks to our husband," Nyssa said.

"Please stop calling him that," Felicity grumbled. "Yes. Oliver killed your father. But _you_ were the one who got rid of the League of Assassins. You destroyed the magic hot tub. You melted that ring." 

"I have dedicated my life to undoing the deeds of my father," Nyssa agreed.

"So why hang onto this one thing?" Felicity asked. "I realize that in the grand scheme of assassin life, one forced marriage might not seem like a big deal. But on the other hand... It is just plain creepy, that your father did that to you. Ok?"

Nyssa shrugged. "I was not forced into bed with Oliver, or to bear Oliver's child, despite my father's intentions," she said. "Oliver has merely been an ally. It has been a convenient marriage for us both."

"Thank you for calling him _Oliver_ ," Felicity said. "But... look, Oliver works with a lot of people. He isn't married to all of them, or even to most of them. He doesn't even _like_ all of them." She sighed. "The past is what it is, I guess. And it sounds like you just accept the idea of a forced marriage..."

"All marriages between men and women are forced," Nyssa stated. "Whether by custom, or religion, or financial necessity. What does your ring symbolize, if not shackles?" 

"I don't agree," Felicity said. "But that's an argument for another day. Just... wouldn't you like to be free of this? Free to fall in love again? With someone you're attracted to? How do marriages end in the League of Assassins, anyway?"

"With death," Nyssa said. 

"Not a good option," Felicity said. "I prefer to keep Oliver alive, thank you."

"Death of the woman," Nyssa said. 

"You mentioned duels," Felicity remembered.

"My father encouraged his wives and concubines to battle with one another," Nyssa said. "That was how my mother died. My father's other women competed to bear him children as well. When they failed, they blamed my mother for her success."

"You know that's not how pregnancy works," Felicity pointed out. "Maybe the magic hot tub made your father's sperm less fertile or something."

"My father encouraged the competition," Nyssa continued. "It amused him. He enjoyed watching his women fight for his affection."

"Some men get off on that," Felicity agreed.

"You have a similar tradition, do you not?" Nyssa asked. "Did Sara and Laurel not fight over the right to be Oliver's lover?"

Felicity had to concede that point. "But he's not that person any more," she argued.

"Did you not kill the mother of Oliver's son?" Nyssa asked.

"That was Adrian Chase," Felicity corrected her. 

"Yet you ended your betrothal to Oliver when you discovered his child," Nyssa pointed out. "And you did not reunite until after Samantha's death."

"That was definitely not what happened," Felicity said. "Correlation is not causation." She shook her head so hard that she might have loosened a few vertebrae. "Look. Nyssa, a duel is out of the question. First, I almost cut my finger off yesterday when I was slicing a bagel, so I don't think it would be a fair fight. And second... you're a lesbian. Why would you want to fight to stay married to a man? Don't you want to be happy? To move on, to live your life with someone you actually love?"

Nyssa nodded. "But there is no other way." 

"Can't you just make up a tradition?" Felicity sighed. "Look. Oliver doesn't know a thing about the culture of the League of Assassins. All he knows is how to fight, right? He doesn't know your marriage customs. Just... make it believable. A little violent-sounding. A little mystical. A little bit of fake ritual."

Nyssa nodded slowly. "I have a ceremonial knife..." she said.

"Perfect," Felicity smiled.

"I will give you your husband," Nyssa said.

"Thank you," Felicity said. "I guess. And Nyssa..." She searched for the words. "I hope you have your own happily-ever-after. Someday." 

Nyssa inclined her head. It looked like some kind of ritual. Felicity hoped she had said the right thing.

But then Nyssa looked up. "And for you, Felicity, I also have a hope. May you finally feel confident in Oliver's love for you." 

"Okay..." Felicity drew out the word. How do you respond to that? "I mean, I am confident, I wouldn't have married him otherwise..."

"Are you?" Nyssa asked. "Or do you, like my father's women, fear to tell Oliver what you really want? Do you fear that you will lose him if the two of you disagree?" 

"Oh, trust me, I disagree with Oliver all of the time," Felicity said.

"Yes," Nyssa said. "But never over things that you want for yourself. Do not deny yourself your dreams, Felicity Smoak, MIT Class of 09. Do not lose yourself. Do not simply be another wife of a former Ra's al Ghul."

Felicity nodded slowly, and then returned to her cypher. This _was_ what she wanted. Overwatch. Oliver's wife. Doing math with William. Solving problems. She really enjoyed math, after all.

And solving puzzles. Like this cypher.

Even if these days she only worked on the puzzles that Oliver needed to solve...

**Author's Note:**

> Frak. An automated tumblr account picked up this fic. I'm orphaning it - I left tumblr nearly a year ago, and I don't want any interaction with the people who used to follow me there.
> 
> I still haven't forgiven the Olicity fandom for its universally nasty commentary on Susan Williams last year. It showed an ugly foundation of anti-career-woman attitudes in the Olicity fandom. I thought people would avoid my fics, knowing how angry I was when I left. I was wrong.


End file.
